.

I put together a bunch of the 1.5" tubes a few days ago. I feel they seal better than the shipping tubes so it should help some. I'm considering the desiccant packs as well. Did you glue those in DougW? No, I did not glue them in. Next time I hit Lowes/Home Depot I'm picking up some stiff alum...

If you are born in S.E. Texas you come standard with gill plates. If you move here later in life you will acquire them after the first full summer you spend here. What I did... is add desiccant to the tubes... I got these off of Amazon. I paid just a tad more to get them in vapor proof package. http...

Now for my 2 cents. For me, when I weld, all things being equal. If I have the cleaning setting, balance, where it's 'generally' recommended, 65-75 % EP, 25-35% EN, the greatest influence on the cleaning width is torch standoff. The further I move the torch from the piece the greater the affected ar...

LtBadd wrote:

cj737 wrote:My filler is color-coded by type, stored against the elements.

Nice rack!

I don’t care who you are... that’s funny!!!

I just made mine and I used 3" on the aluminum and 1 1/2" for mild steel. I have yet to purchase any stainless rods.

You "might" could get by with 2 1/2" on 10#s but I think it'd be very close.

I have a similar, though less extensive, set-up. You went vertical... I went horizontal...

20200623_115527 by Doug Wei, on Flickr

speaking of storage...

Is it worthwhile to incorporate desiccant packets in the rod storage tubes?

For code work, stick rods matter a great deal. For hobby work, not so much. I buy Crown TIG filler an awful lot from IOC online and have great results. Thanks CJ.... I'm in the process of upping my inventory so I don't have to be concerned with having "stuff" on hand. There's not a lot of...

Is there any appreciable gain to be had for the upcharge on brand name fillers?

Is Blue Demon brand as good as Lincolin's SuperGlaze? How does does Crown Alloys rate? Hobart branded filler? Or... is price the only true consideration you make when purchasing filler rods/wire?

Does that mean you can get cancer twice as fast? What it really means is that anyone making an excuse why red tungsten doesn't work for them with aluminum is doing just that, making an excuse. :lol: You're probably right. I did weld a lot of stuff prior to discovering I'm not supposed to use the re...

Was reading an article by Mike Sammons on thefabricator.com web site about tungsten. I remember the recent dialog here on the usage of Thoriated tungsten in A/C aluminum welding applications. This article seems to counter the general consensus that Thoriated tungsten is not the best choice for A/C a...

Thanks! I'll probably whip me up something similar! I don't weld for a living or even for any kind of profit. If someone wants me to weld something for them it'll have to make it to my shop. And then they'll have to assume any/all risk associated with weld failure! I can glue metal together but I ai...

It's just about impossible to freehand out in thin air without dipping. For my welding table I made an adjustable rest that's on swing-arms you can mostly position by hand, with an elevation part for height that needs a locking screw adjusted to set that. But once the height is set, you can reposit...

Gonna have a hinge plate bolted up to this end. That will necessitate torquing the bolts down pretty good. So... figured it'd be a good idea to install anti-crush tubes to prevent collapsing the tubing over time.... https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50013747141_5109163e3a.jpg 20200616_142010 by Do...

Are you welding inside shop/garage or outside?

You're 30% EN cleaning.... with a range of 10%-90% what your machine it actually giving you is EP values. You need to change that to ~65-75% and you'll probably be able to start welding.

What alloy of aluminum is the tubing? That makes a big difference on the preferred filler, and how easy they will weld. The tubing is 6061. I practiced with 4043, 5356, and 4943. I liked the welding properties of the 5356. So that's what I used on this project. The reason I liked it is because of t...

Oscar wrote:


Yes.

I recognize that weld!!!!

Last two welds I tried to "tighten" em up... Without a doubt they are my worst two welds on the project. I upped the amps from 180 to 220 and the frequency from 150(I think) to 200. I tried those settings on a couple of scrap pieces and did get some full penetration which I simply can't ha...

Thanks Oscar! I'd watched that video before. Funny how as you gain a little bit of experience you hear and see things that didn't register before. I've only got 3-4 fillet welds left on my project. The last few I did I bumped the frequency to 180. The last weld Jody did in that video he had the freq...

Not sure I understand all the terminology.... What I am doing is moving the arc from the vertical piece to the horizontal piece and dabbing as required. Are you saying focus the arc at the center of the joint and don't move up and down with the arc? My pattern is kinna: up/down/back/dab.... up/down/...

Knowin' what to do and being able to do it sometimes causes problems... :D When you see the plum of black soot at the ends of my welds... I'm trying to reduce heat, circle the torch and add a few dabs right as the pool solidifies... Sometimes are better'n others... But all the butt welds are done on...

Welllll... ain't gonna win no 'pretty' awards but one side of the butt welds is done... CJ's gonna tell me "Get it hotter!" but if he could see the full scope of what I'm building perhaps he's appreciate why I'm reluctant to get full penetration on these welds. https://live.staticflickr.co...

Ok... made the changes in post flow and added 1/16" 5356. It helped I still had 2 out of 8 tack/stitches crack but again that could'a been me moving the torch too soon. Here's a look at what I'm working with... https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50005607676_c8f402eba1.jpg 20200614_111832 by Do...

Ok... thanks I'll give it a try. My post flow had been 5 sec. and I wasn't really holding the torch over the tack even that long. So now post is set to 10sec. Gonna flip it over and tack the bottome side n' see what happens? Any idea why I could hand hold/tack all the pieces I practiced on up until ...